American Road & Transportation Builders Association 18 February 2016 National & State Data Available: www.artbabridgereport.org (WASHINGTON)—There’s good news and bad news to report about the condition of America’s bridges. The good news is there were 2,574 fewer structurally deficient bridges in 2015 compared to the number in 2014. The bad news is there are still 58,500 on the structurally…
On February 23, 2016, TRB’s Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Committee sent its sixth letter report to Gregory Nadeau, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The committee provides advice and assistance on the conduct of the LTBP program, which is designed to collect research-quality data on a large representative sample of in-service U.S. highway bridges and to analyze…
The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report that evaluates several strip seal termination details to consider redesign possibilities on bridges’ strip seal expansion joints. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 4 March 2016 A now-completed bridge over the Willamette River in Oregon not only replaces a 91-year-old structure with a new one that has seismic protections, but is also the state’s first registered “Greenroads” project for the sustainable building techniques used in its construction. Deputy Federal Highway Administrator David Kim joined U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, Oregon Department…
The Florida Department of Transportation has released a report that conducts an experimental investigation to understand epoxy grout pourbacks’ failure mechanisms on bridges and provide guidance for eliminating failures. Read the Report
The Ohio Department of Transportation has released a report that explains the extent to which design changes and equipment may provide alternative ways of performing drainage trough cleaning on bridges, rather than from above or below the troughs. Read the Report
More than 48,000 bridges in the United States contain structural timber in the superstructure or substructure, according to the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) of December 2012. Approximately 2,000 of these timber bridges are located in Minnesota; many of these were built in the 1950s and 1960s and now may be experiencing some level of deterioration. Moisture in the…
AASHTO Journal, 5 February 2016 The Alabama Department of Transportation set out to save months of traffic disruptions when replacing the first of two roadway bridges along SR 210 in Dothan, with plans to use the state’s first bridge slide construction project that would close part of the road for just seven days. But the work went faster than…
AASHTO Journal, 5 February 2016 The Idaho Department of Transportation found itself caught between requirements to inspect overhead suspension cable saddles on the 1,500-foot-long Dent Bridge north of Orofino and the need to safeguard federally protected osprey that had been nesting at points that would prevent inspections. Old osprey nest. Its answer was to build four new aluminum platforms…
AASHTO Journal, 29 January 2016 The Arizona Department of Transportation said it will tap a federal grant this autumn to install information sensors on four Interstate 15 bridges in remote northwestern Arizona, which will provide ADOT engineers in Phoenix with real-time data on bridge conditions. ADOT said the technology project is funded by a $768,000 Federal Highway Administration grant…
Better Roads, 19 January 2016 Tom Kuennen Eliminating the “end-bump” in construction of bridge approaches … precast deck panels speeding bridge construction … quick seismic retrofits for bridge piers … and how rockets can speed construction of suspension bridges in isolated areas. Each of these topics will change how bridges will be built in the future, and they were among…
The Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University has released a report that develops a comprehensive inspection methodology for assessing the safety of culverts and other short span structures. Read the Report
The Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute has released a report that presents the results of an experimental study on the fatigue performance of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with different externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer systems. Read the Report
The Institute for Transportation at Iowa State University has released a report that reviews available rehabilitation alternatives and solutions to complete rapid rehabilitation projects. Read the Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released a request for proposals to develop live-bed and clear-water contraction scour equations suitable for use in risk-based bridge design for a wide range of hydraulic conditions, contraction ratios, bed material, and gradation uniformities. Proposals are due March 1, 2016. Read the RFP
The Washington State Department of Transportation has released a report that discusses the design of the double wall pile and results from finite element modeling of the pile, scaled prototype testing, and full-scale field testing. Read the Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Research Board Program (NCHRP) has released a request for proposals to develop proposed AASHTO Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) design guidelines for stainless steel girders for full-length girder bridges and end sections of A709 steel girders; and guidelines for stainless steel superstructure fabrication. Proposals are due February 23, 2016. Project: Project Information Read the RFP
Pioneer Press, 6 January 2016 Mary Divine Work continues on the new St. Croix River bridge on Wednesday, January 6, 2016. It will open later than originally planned. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri) From flooding and an early cold snap to major equipment failures, the St. Croix River bridge project has faced one problem after another. Now, officials say…
JC online Lafayette Journal & Courier 1 January 2016 (Photo: Journal & Courier file photo) The Indiana Department of Transportation will test license plate-tracking technology next year to monitor “unpermitted overweight vehicles,” the agency said Tuesday. Officials said INDOT will pilot the technology after an overweight semi passed over Interstate 65’s southbound Wildcat Creek bridge in Tippecanoe County. Crews spent three days repairing damage to…
The New Zealand Transportation Agency has released a report that provides a summary of current practices relating to the design and construction of its integral and semi-integral bridges. Read the Report
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a report that identifies inspection methods, manuals, training, and timetables for bridge owners, and how to use this new inspection process when determining its annual bridge projects. Read the Report
The Oregon Department of Transportation has released a report that characterizes flexural and compressional properties of the timber splice repair design and discerns any influence of concrete plug length on the performance of the piles. Read the Report
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has released a request for proposals todevelop proposed toughness requirements for the heat-affected zones of welded structural steels for highway bridges, as identified in AASHTO M 270, Standard Specification for Structural Steel for Bridges. Proposals are due February 9, 2016. Project: Project Information Read the RFP
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has released a manual that presents timber maintenance and repair options that are designed to be simple and affordable. Read the Manual
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released a report that examines the current conditions of the nation’s bridges, as well as changes in bridge conditions that have occurred over the last 10 years. Read the Report
AASHTO Journal, 11 December 2015 The Connecticut Department of Transportation will use an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, to “perform limited visual bridge inspection tasks” this month of its mile-long Gold Star Memorial Bridges on Interstate 95. The announcement said this was part of “CTDOT’s ongoing mission to improve and evaluate its operations and to assess the usefulness and…
AASHTO Journal, 11 December 2015 The new Abraham Lincoln Bridge between Louisville, Ky., and Jeffersonville, Ind., opened to traffic late on Dec. 6, a key part of a multibillion-dollar set of construction projects to remake and expand the Ohio River crossings. The new cable-stayed bridge with tall cable towers now carries three lanes of northbound traffic on Interstate 65….
AASHTO Journal, 11 December 2015 Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer joined state and local officials in Nashville Dec. 4 to celebrate the end – seven months ahead of schedule – of a major project to replace eight downtown bridges along Interstate 40. The project included the removal and replacement of four twin bridges along I-40. Built in…
AASHTO Journal, 4 December 2015 A new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that while states have been reducing the number of problem bridges on the roadway network, one in four bridges is deficient in some way. “Nearly 25 percent of all bridges are deficient,” the GAO said, “with 10 percent categorized as structurally deficient and…
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) latest Impacts on Practice explores a report that helped close the gaps between hydraulic predictions and the field experience of structural engineers by using a risk-based methodology. NCHRP Report 761: Reference Guide for Applying Risk and Reliability-Based Approaches for Bridge Scour Prediction, is now an important tool for bridge engineers to…
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